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From: rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: net.wines,net.consumers
Subject: Reinheitsgebot
Message-ID: <434@opus.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 1-May-84 04:14:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: opus.434
Posted: Tue May  1 04:14:05 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 3-May-84 08:28:56 EDT
References: <179@hercules.UUCP>
Organization: NBI, Boulder
Lines: 28

<>
For all of you in net.consumers just joining us, there's a discussion going
on in net.wines about beers that touches on ingredients.  Germany has a
very significant law about this.  From a posting from Archie Larchner:

>What makes German beers different is that they are made from malt
>(some of it wheat malt in the case of wiessbier), hops, water, and
>nothing else BY GERMAN LAW.  It is also illegal to import beer into
>Germany that does not conform to this law, named the Reinheitsgebot...

The significance of this is that it may well be one of the oldest consumer
protection laws - and almost certainly is the oldest one still in effect.
It took effect in 1516!

(The word Reinheitsgebot means quite simply "purity decree".)  Check that
again - there are only FOUR ingredients in beer.  By contrast, in the US,
the FDA allows 58 (from my list) additives to beer - some of them are
as innocuous as ascorbic acid (good ol' vitamin C).  Some, like extract of
gentian or grapefruit oil, are just downright strange.  But a few are
enough to gag an organic chemist.  Now, let me be careful about this - just
because they're ALLOWED doesn't mean they're USED.  In fact, most brewers
are pretty careful and keep additives to a minimum.

Many SMALL American breweries adhere to the principle of the
Reinheitsgebot.
-- 
...Relax...don't worry...have a homebrew.		Dick Dunn
{hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd				(303) 444-5710 x3086